The Hub's Invasion
by Chosen Nightmares
Summary: In which Ianto is pissed and the team learn not to mess with him when he's sleep-deprived.


**Torwood is not mine (however much I'd have liked it to be). The vague alien species that isn't actually explained/described at all, however, **_**is**_** - so you'd better not use it without my permission. ;D**

**Alright, so I got a muse stuck in my head and it wouldn't let me sleep until I'd written it down. Low and behold, I was therefore awake until 3:45am writing and now, here it is!**

It was night-time.

Everyone else had already left, leaving Jack and Ianto alone in the Hub. And having been awake for the thirty-nine solid hours previous, Ianto thought it was in his best interests to get at least ten straight hours of uninterrupted sleep. To ensure his continued presence was, at the very least, palatable of course. Jack had evidently thought that it would be for the best too, seeing as he was the one steering Ianto towards his bed and _not_ trying to get in his pants at the same time.

Truly, there must be a first time for everything.

Having eventually summoned enough of the required energy to strip himself of (most of) his clothes and finally fallen asleep after reassuring Jack that no, he was not going to keel over anytime soon just because of a 6-inch long gash down his back. Nor was he going to fall unconscious due to blood loss or some such nonsense (it wasn't bleeding _that _badly, right?). Ianto thought that maybe, just maybe, he was going to get the rest he'd been in (desperate) need for as of two months ago.

Evidently, the aliens who decided to invade the Hub a scant four hours later highly disagreed.

Owen had returned sometime in the intervening hours since conscious thought had moved through his mind. Gwen had as well, apparently. Though he was guessing that Tosh had had to have been called in, seeing as she was dressed up nicely and had told him previously that she'd had a date tonight. _How _the four members of the team he worked with on a daily basis had been able to be taken hostage -in their own base, _with their own restraints-_ while the current enemy was one they'd never seen before and thusly didn't know their environment as well as they did, was beyond Ianto at the moment. Though given that he'd only just woken to the sound of yelling and a few random gunshots to find Jack, Gwen, Tosh and Owen tied up at various stations around the Hub, it was fair. That and he had _just woken up_.

Interrupted sleep when he's had one _hell_ of a day on top of a _hell_ of a _month_, and he should be given a medal for not snapping and committing mass genocide right then and there. Or previously snapping, period.

Subconscious mind telling him where to put his feet and what was happening around him as he stumbled silently to the doorway of Jack's office, only to bear witness to the sight of some _really_ ugly alien screaming it's head off at Jack while pointing a gun at Tosh. He blinked blearily at the scene, willing it to go away for a few moments whilst simultaneously assimilating the fact that Owen was being held captive on the couch and Gwen was at her station.

Leaning against the nice and cool doorway after the heat in Jack's little hidey-hole-thing and hoisting his gun (_'the hell'd _that _get there?_') up at the alien that was making all the racket. Holding it surprisingly steady -given his current state un unrest- he shoots once, twice, thrice, fourths before letting his arm rest again. The invading group of aliens dropping dead before they could retaliate and the Hub sounding blessedly silent once again.

And his co-workers just _stared_.

"Shut. _Up!_" Belated askance was always better that total absences.

The staring continued with the bound team members looking at Ianto's half-naked (yet _very_ nicely toned) form in awe, until it was finally processed that they were waiting for him to say something. A few moments later they received their explanation.

"... They interrupted. My. _Sleep_."

Having given what Ianto deemed to be a very reasonable explanation in his not-even-half-way-there state, he promptly turned around and headed back to bed. Not even contemplating the idea of helping the others free themselves, having immediately deemed it as unimportant. Seven minutes later and he was asleep again.

Owen didn't even register the words before he spoke them. "Remind me to never wake Teaboy, yeah?" The others just nodded, still staring at the spot where Ianto was previously.

"And that was one of the calmer reactions I've seen." Jack stated lightly before getting back to trying to free himself before moving on to the others. Owen stared at him incredulously, though the others weren't much better.

"Calm? _That_ was _calm?_"

Jack just chuckled slightly. "Oh yeah, you should've seen him when he'd had to stay up for _sixty-two_ hours." The team of Torchwood Three just shuddered as their quite creative imaginations supplied their own images. Jack just laughed quietly again.

Ianto never really did find out why everyone was so cautious around him for the next month though...


End file.
